E is for Ethiopia (The ABC’s of ceramics again and more!)

E is for Ethiopian Coffee Pot

Holy cow! I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted an ABC’s of Ceramics entry. I looked at my past posts and it will be a year this month. I got hung up my pots that start with F, but I will tell that lame story when I do my F is for…post. In the past year I’ve added five pots to my collection. But the five I added, did not help me out with the letters that I’m missing, Q, X, Z. I thought was going to start with F, but then I realized I have this beautiful Ethiopian coffee pot now, given to me by Tigist, she is the master potter of Vision of Africa, one of the organizations that I worked with while I was in Ethiopia this summer.

Tigist burnishing a vase while pots are heating up to be pit fired.

One of the reasons I decided to revisit E because this post is all points Ethiopia! And if you frequent my blog you will know that Ethiopia is near and dear to my heart. (I still have to do a blog post about my trip to Ethiopia.)

While I was in Ethiopia this summer I met the most amazing couple Jeff and Holly. We immediately connected and became fast friends, although we are separated by 6 states and 1,251 miles, but our friendship will endure, and I long to see them again. Jeff and Holly adopted an Ethiopian girl Elle, and because of contaminated water Elle was ill for months after coming to the U.S. The reason they went to Ethiopia last summer was to install a water purification system. And I was lucky enough to be able to help them.

Jeff and Holly are going back to Ethiopia in May to install two more clean water systems, with One Child Campaign. As you can image it is very expensive just getting to Ethiopia, but they are also fund raising for the purification systems. Please help them by purchasing one of these T-shirts. For more information on their next trip and a link to purchase the T-shirts go Holly’s blog, Bird’s Words.

Also, I am donating one of my old kilns to Mission Ethiopia. The women of Mission Ethiopia are HIV positive and suffer from leprosy; these women are considered outcasts and unemployable. They are currently pit firing beads, and want to expand to glazed beads. My little Skutt 714 will be the perfect kiln for them, it’s a very small test kiln. Perfect for beads. My question to my dear readers; how do I get it to Ethiopia? I have been slowly researching that question, but if any of you have ideas please post a comment.

Here are the women of Mission Ethiopia stringing beads together, after they have been pit fired.

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on Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 6:57 pm and is filed under ABC'S of Ceramics, Ethiopia.
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